OK, Here We Go
I am going to present my opinion of the series of events that led up to the WWI Marine Sniper Rifle, rather than download some humongous file. I will start my clearing up one item that I would like to see a resolution. The picture below has shown up in several places on various forums, but it was cropped for some reason (discussed by CplN previously). This is a copy of the original photo as I found it on a Russian website long ago. Today, I verified it is correct by finding it (looked at a lot of photos in the process) on the site from which the Russians pulled it. The photo is a picture of a Marine Sergeant holding a scoped 1903 Springfield. The scope is an A5 in a commercial #2 mount on Springfield Marine Bases, which just means it is on 7.2" spacing. The reason I think those are #2 mounts is that I think I can see the Grasshopper. If that is a Grasshopper, then the rest must be true.
How does one date the picture? One of the pictures I downloaded had a caption that had a date of 1917. The captions didn't transfer with the photo. But take a look at the photo. If that photo was taken in France, it could only have been taken in 1917. Why do I think that? Because of the Marine's uniform. He is wearing something he would not have been wearing in 1918 in France (unless he was giving Pershing wrap-arounds). Why is that significant? Because the WRA rifles had yet to be assembled. We know it isn't a Niedner rifle, because there would be no Grasshopper and the scope would have those big knobs. What, I believe, we have is a Marine holding a scoped team rifle, probably in France, even though there is some evidence the Marines did not take their rifle team rifles to France, and we know the Marines rifle teams were using scoped '03's with both spacings for years before the war. There is a chance it is a posed picture taken in the states, as we know posed pictures were common during WWI.
If anyone can show evidence that I am wrong, please do so. "He/She said that" won't cut it. If you disagree, please do so in a civil manner.
You are going to howl over the next few installments. We are going to visit the "Four Horsemen".
Jim
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